A lecture by Sr.Sukeina from Innovative Minds,
given to the sisters section of a South London Mosque during Ramadan
Learning From History
They say that those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. I want to begin by spending a few minutes looking at the rise of nazism and see what lessons we can learn from it.
When the nazis won the elections in 1932 they didn't achieve an overall majority in parliament so they had problems passing their laws. They needed something which would allow them to bypass parliament. They did this through an act of terrorism - by burning down their own parliament building and blaming communists for it. It helped turn public opinion against their opponents and helped them declare a state of emergency.
That very night 1000s were arrested as suspected terrorists and the next morning anti-terror laws were passed without opposition giving police powers to imprison suspects indefinitely without trial, without charge, without access to lawyers. The new anti-terror laws were described as essential "for the protection of the people and the State".
Within a month of the burning of the parliament, Germany's first concentration camp Dachau was opened. It started out as an internment camp to hold "terrorist suspects" but with time as more people were sent there it became a death camp along with Auschwitz and others.
Dachau, the first of many concentration
camps, opened a month after the
terrorist attack on the parliament
One person who was eventually sent to Dachau in 1938 was Martin Niemoeller, a Christian pastor. He wrote:
"In Germany, the Nazis first came for the communists, and I did not speak up, because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak up, because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak up, because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I did not speak up, because I was not a Catholic. Then they came for me... and by that time, there was no one to speak up for anyone."
The parallels with the Third Reich and Bush's New Word Order are clear for us to see. The unanswered questions about 9-11 and how it was used by Bush and Blair to pass Anti-terrorism laws with little opposition, wiping out our basic civil liberties in the process.
But this time its the Muslims that they are coming for first. Like Goebbels propaganda ministry the mainstream media - Fox, CNN, BBC are all demonising Muslims as an unwelcome "fifth column" in society. Not unlike the nazi laws targeting Jews we are today witnessing countries right across Europe proposing and passing anti-Muslim laws starting with a ban on hijab - the mere sight of a Muslim is now, apparently, unacceptable and a "threat" to society.
Reminiscent of the "No Jews" signs prevalent in nazi Germany, a French doctor has already put up a sign in his clinic which reads 'I refuse to treat veiled women'.
Police in the town of Drezzo in Italy are issuing penalty tickets - like parking tickets - to Muslim women they catch wearing a face hijab outside their homes. One senator has complained that its not enough, and is proposing a 6 month jail sentence.
The first new concentration camp - Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo
opened five months after the 9-11 attack.
In this country there are Muslim rotting in Belmarsh prison, being held indefinitely without trial, without charge, without access to lawyers. Last year over 32,000 people, mainly Muslims, were stopped and searched under the anti-terrorism laws.
So history is repeating itself, the question arises - what are we going to do? Are we going to let it all happen again? Have we not learnt anything? Are Muslims going to keep their heads buried in the sand and deny what is happening around them until they are taken away?
The early signs are not good, many Muslims across Europe are running scared, they are telling us to keep our heads down, don't talk about Islam or politics, and don't go on demonstrations.
At a demonstration protesting the ongoing US attack on Najaf unbelievably people were stopped from chanting "Down with USA" - they were told not to chant anything against the USA - this was whilst US war planes were bombing our brothers and sisters near Imam Ali's shrine.
They tell us don't draw attention to yourself - brothers shave your beards, sisters remove your hijabs. Muslim girls in France defying the hijab ban are being accused by elements of their own community of causing problems for everyone by insisting on wearing hijab.
In this desperate post 9-11 world, they say: Allah tells us not to put ourselves in danger, Allah judges on intension, he knows what's in your hearts, so remove that hijab off your head and wear it in your heart and you will be safe.
But will you really be safe?
Lessons From Bosnia
Lets look at what happened in Bosnia. There the Muslims were totally integrated with the non-Muslims. In fact after 50 years of communist repression most Muslims there lived in almost total ignorance of Islam. You could not tell who was a Muslim and who wasn't without asking their names - and quite often their Islamic names had also disappeared. Yet did that save them?
What are the lessons to learn from the genocide of Muslims in Bosnia?
Let me briefly relate two stories from Bosnia. The first is of Dzemal and his wife Mulija. They lived happily as part of the integrated community of Muslims and Christians in the town of Iljas some 5 miles from Sarajevo. They felt safe - even their best friends were Christians, her husband had been the best man at their wedding.
Yet the day after the town was captured by the Serbs, this same friend of the family came knocking on their door with Serbian militiamen. Mulija, who was nine months pregnant at the time, and her husband opened the door, they offered their friend coffee. Her husbands mother and their 16 year old niece were also in the house. This "best friend" and his militiamen, in front of the whole family slit the mother-in laws throat and raped the niece before killing her. Mulija's husband begged his former "friend" to let his wife go to the hospital. Instead she was taken to a hotel which had been converted in to a jail for holding Muslim women.
I cannot relate to you what happened in this jail - its too horrific - but when she escaped, crawling out on her knees, she only managed to reached the grass outside before collapsing and giving birth to her baby daughter Almira. Baby Almira was covered in bruises - black and blue marks left from their ordeal...
The other incident I want to briefly mention is that of Br.Demirs father. You may remember Br.Demir - the Bosnian brother from IHRC who addressed the youth programme last year. His father wasn't a practicing Muslim - he didn't pray or even know much about Islam. Yet they put him in a concentration camp for 13 months. Not a single bone in his body was left untouched, not a single nerve in his whole body escaped the pain of beating and torture. Four of those months he spent in a cell deep underground, there was water up to his waist and there was only one plank of wood on which he was sitting, sleeping, doing everything. They use to throw bread in to the water. Four months he spent like that.
Muslim in Trmopolje concentration camp
Then they offered him a way out - they asked him to publicly renounce Islam and they would let him go. He did not accept that. He said to them that after everything that you did to me the only thing left is my faith - I cannot renounce it.
These are just two stories out of a million others - every Muslim in Bosnia has his and her story to tell. They teach us a lesson - that to abandon or dilute our faith in the face of difficulty is suicide for us! It is by clinging to Islam - every last thread of it - that we derive our strength to survive whatever comes before us.
In these troubled times we need to be doing more, not less! Not keep our heads down - hidden - buried, but rather raise them high, draped proudly in hijab and meet the challenge. We need to speak out, use our voices and our rights, whilst we still have them, to defend our community and our faith.
And its not as hard as it looks, remember for every step that we take Allah is there to support and strengthen us.
"O ye who believe! If you support (the cause of) Allah, He will support you and firm your foothold"
Holy Qur'an 47:7
Us And Them
Another pitfall many of us fall in to is to divide the Ummah in to us and them. We say its happening to them and not us, we are safe as long as we don't get involved. Them being the Palestinians, or the Iraqis, or the Chechnians, or our sisters in Turkey.... They divide the Ummah whist Allah commands us to stay united.
"And verily this Ummah of yours is One Ummah and I am your Lord and Cherisher: therefore fear Me (and no other)"
Holy Qur'an 23:52
The reality in today's globalised world is that we all live in the same global village - the world is a much smaller place today and what happens on the other side of the planet effects us all as if it happened next door - we all saw that with what followed the attack on the twin towers.
We are only deluding ourselves if we, for example, think the ban on hijab in Turkey or France doesn't effect us. It is precisely because we did nothing when they dragged our sisters to prison in Turkey for wearing hijab that today we see a hijab ban on our doorsteps in France.
Iraq under occupation -
a mother waits outside Abu-Ghraib
prison in the hope of seeing her son alive
Similarly because we did nothing when they opened camp X-ray in Guantanamo Bay that today we hear of Abu Ghraib and Belmarsh. It is our inaction that led to their boldness to do what they did to our brothers and sisters in Abu Ghraib and now we are hearing reports of abuse in Belmarsh Prison in East London - Muslims detained in this country without any charge - being denied halal food whilst jewish prisoners in the next cell are being served kosher food, their prescription glasses being confiscated rendering them practically blind, prison guards targeting them as terrorists and spitting on them... one prisoner in desperation has asked permission from his mujtahid to end his own life. Imagine this isn't an american prison in Cuba or Afghanistan or Iraq that we are talking about, this is a british prison which is less than an hours journey from here!
Wake Up!
Okay, the talk was titled "Muslims Wake Up!", so lets see what can be achieved if we do that - if we wake up and meet the challenge facing us.
A school in Luton, Icknield High School had a policy of discrimination against Muslim girls. Whilst they allowed Sikh boys to wear turbans which were not part of the uniform they refused to allow Muslim girls to wear the hijab. Their islamophobic practices were exposed back in 1999 but it wasn't until this year that they stopped the discrimination. How did it stop?
Well the school despite having a large Muslim population had no Muslim governors so they weren't going to do anything unless forced to act. The headmaster was happy to enforce the rule - he would keep Muslim girls in isolation if they dared enter his school in hijab. So what happened?
Two things, firstly, a parent of a prospective Muslim pupil upon hearing their daughter would not be allowed to wear hijab complained to the council. Secondly local Muslims set up a protest outside the school, gave leaflets to parents explaining the discrimination.
All this put the spotlight on the school and the council. The councils race advisory chiefs had to act - they informed the school governors that the school would be in breach of the Race Relations Act is they continued discriminating against Muslims. The governors now threatened, quickly voted to lift the ban on hijab. A ban which was in effect for at least 15 years was lifted because one parent refused to bow her head and instead stood firm to defend her daughter's hijab.
That's just one example of how easy it is to do something which, Ahamdulillah, resulted in positive gains for the Muslim community.
This is all that is being asked - for us not to hide away in fear or to abandon our Islam in order to integrate, no, but rather to take part in society as Muslims. I believe we as Muslims have something positive to offer this society and its our duty to do so.
Action
Currently we are campaigning against Oxfams decision to partner with Starbucks, a known supporter of apartheid Israel. We have letters for people to sign, I hope you will take the lead and help us in this important campaign. I have a 100 letters, I hope I can find a 100 sisters willing to sign their names.
Also this coming Saturday is the annual Quds Day rally - remember Imam Khomeini dedicated it as a day for all Muslims to stand up for Palestine and against all oppressors around the world. It is important that we all show our solidarity that day. Sharon is slaughtering our brothers & sisters, sons & daughters, like animals. Just last week we saw the 13 year old school girl Iman al-Hams executed by an Israeli platoon commander - he put his gun to her small head and fired repeatedly - how can such atrocities end if we are not prepared to even give up one Saturday afternoon for her? Please show your support for Iman al-Hams and all the other victims of Israeli oppression, please join us next Saturday, it starts at Marble Arch at 12:30. [poster]
I just want to finish with the words of Br.Demir who was asked "Why go to the marches when they change nothing, why write letters when no body reads them?" He replied "I do - because when Imam Mehdi (AS) comes, if my work leaves one grain, one grain of sand on the road by which he is going to pass, my life had a meaning and my live was full. Therefore I don't do it to achieve something - by doing it I have already achieved it. The success is with Allah subhana watala
- not with me or with you. But I discharge by responsibility and I stand every night in front of Allah
subhana watala
and say Ya Allah today I thought about my brothers..." |
13 year old Iman Al-Hams
It was broad daylight and Iman was wearing her school uniform and carrying her satchel.
Eyewitness: " Iman had tried to run for her life, but trigger-happy Israeli soldiers were so frenzied that they kept chasing her with their bullets."
Israeli soldier admits:" The company commander approached her, shot two bullets into her, walked back towards the force, turned back to her, switched his weapon to automatic and emptied his entire magazine into her."
Doctors counted at least 17 bullet wounds and said much of her head was destroyed.
Israeli Army statement: "The investigation did not find that the company or the company commander had acted unethically." ( 21 October 2004 )
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